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There are strikes today in 190 cities with fast food workers demanding $15 an hour and the right to unionize. At the same time low-wage federal contract workers are demanding Presidential action to win $15 and a union.

People are striking in 190 cities demanding $15 an hour and the right to form a union. It’s not just fast-food workers striking today. Home care workers, convenience store cashiers, discount store clerks, airport cleaners and ramp workers and baggage handlers and skycaps and wheelchair attendants, Walmart associates, and federally-contracted service workers are all calling for $15 an hour and the right to form a union.

A “week of action” starts Saturday against “fast-track” trade promotion authority legislation, which would be used to usher in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” (i.e. corporate rights) agreement.

This weekend President Obama flies to Asia for a week of meetings. Part of the agenda is to get TPP finalized. In response, a broad coalition of labor, environmental, consumer and other “stakeholder” groups has delivered to congressional leaders a petition signed by more than 500,000 people opposing “fast-track” authority for the pact. It is these groups that are launching a week of action to drive up awareness of the dangers of Fast Track and TPP.

TPP is a twelve-nation pact that setting up new rules for approximately 40 percent of the global economy. While part of TPP is about relaxing tariffs and quotas, more of the agreement gives corporations new rights under financial regulations, limits the ability of governments to require that public procurement be done with in-country suppliers, gives the big pharmaceutical companies new powers over medicine patents and limits the ability of governments to set their own environmental policies. A section of the agreement called “investor-state dispute settlement” lets companies sue governments for doing things that limit corporate profits – even limiting a country’s ability to launch anti-smoking campaigns.

The giant, multinational corporations are going to try to sneak fast-track authority through the Congress because it greases the skids, making TPP almost inevitable, no matter how many people and organizations oppose it. We have to try to stop this.

Netroots Nation is announcing The Netroots Music Project, “to re-inject music into our current political discourse and support the artists already doing this day to day.”

Netroots Nation will hold an annual Unity Concert with music and performers that focus on the issues of the Netroots Nation host city. At the Netroots Nation event in Phoenix the theme will be immigration.

Tell your member of Congress (MOC) to vote for the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) “Better Off Budget’ (BOB). Click to call.

This week the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the “Ryan”/Republican corporate/conservative budget and the CPC “Better Off Budget.” This is a chance to offer the country a real and visible contrast that clearly shows off the advantages of a progressive approach to our economy over a conservative/corporate approach to our economy.

Rep. Paul Ryan’s Republican corporate/conservative budget favors the interests of the wealthiest few Americans and their giant multinational corporations at the expense of American-based manufacturers and other companies, America’s middle class working people and the poor. It actually takes heath care and protections away from millions of people, transforms Medicare towards a complicated voucher system for the profit of insurance companies and drastically cuts the “safety net” that now enables millions of poor and unemployed Americans to get by, (even as Republicans obstruct increases in the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits for millions.)

The Republican budget cuts $5.1 trillion from things government does to make our lives better.

The Republican budget keeps and expands loopholes in corporate taxes that encourage companies to move jobs and factories out of the country.

The Republican budget repeals the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), leaving millions with no insurance or possibility of getting insurance.

The Republican budget cuts Pell Grants for attending college by more than $125 billion over the next decade.

The Republican budget makes deep cuts to Medicaid, converts the program to a block grant administered at the state level, and repeals the Medicaid expansion.

The Republican budget cuts Food Stamps (SNAP) by at least $135 billion and converts the program to a block grant.

The Republican budget cuts domestic programs substantially – nearing 20 percent in some cases – for total cuts of $791 billion over a decade.

The Republican budget increases military spending by $483 billion.

According to Joshua Smith at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) the Republican budget “would decrease GDP by 0.9 percent and decrease nonfarm payrolls by 1.1 million jobs in fiscal year 2015… The following fiscal year, when Ryan’s cuts to discretionary spending kick in … [it] would decrease GDP by 2.5 percent and cost 3.0 million jobs.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus “Better Off Budget”

The CPC “Better Off Budget” translates progressive values into a national budget that puts people to work, invests in our infrastructure and economy to drive our future prosperity, assists and provides greater opportunity for the less fortunate, protects our environment, drives down future budget deficits and demonstrates how a progressive approach actually addresses and fixes a number of our pressing national problems.

Here are some of the things this budget would do for the country if passed:

The CPC “Better Off Budget” increases employment by 4.6 million jobs in 2015 – 9 million by 2017 – and boosts gross domestic product (GDP) by 3.8 percent.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” increases taxes on the wealthiest by restoring Clinton tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” cuts out corporate tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs out of the country.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” creates jobs in our building and construction industries with funds to repair and modernize roads, bridges, water and other infrastructure.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” includes a direct-hire Public Works and Education program that will hire physicians, students, construction and community workers, and an education program boost to hire more teachers and improve schools.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” enhances federal programs targeted at creating equity and improving outcomes for women, people of color, and their families.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” provides assistance to states to allow them to hire and rehire public employees such as police, firefighters and health care workers.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” invests in clean and renewable energy, which creates middle-class jobs, boosts the economy, and cuts pollution.

But wait, there’s more!

The CPC “Better Off Budget” implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” funds public financing of campaigns to curb special interest influence in politics.

The CPC “Better Off Budget” endorses “Scrapping the Cap” – it would require high-income individuals to contribute payroll taxes at the same rate as people earning less than $100,000 a year – and expanding Social Security benefits separately from the federal budget process.

What The Public Wants

Here’s the thing: The CPC “Better Off Budget” respects what the American people want Washington to do. Take a look at the website Populist Majority to see what the polls show. It also fixes a number of America’s serious problems, like jobs and infrastructure, addresses climate change, and gets to work on helping people out of poverty. At the same time the public really does not like the things that are in this Republican budget.

If enough Democrats support the CPC “Better Off Budget,” the public will have the opportunity to see that we have real and different choices in the Fall elections.

Please call and write your member of Congress and ask him or her to vote for the “Better Off Budget” from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The big corporations and the Obama administration are trying to push through a giant new trade treaty that gives corporations even more power, and which will send even more jobs, factories, industries and money out of the country. This is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and they are pushing something called “fast track” in Congress to help push it through.

We have to stop this, and we should take the momentum we have generated in our push-back on this to demand Congress and President Obama instead fix NAFTA first. Then fix all of our trade relationships to help working people on all sides of our borders.

TPP, Fast Track And NAFTA

There has been a lot of news about the upcoming TPP trade agreement. The agreement is being negotiated in extreme secrecy in a corporate-dominated process that appears to be leading to an agreement that would give corporations even more power than they already have. Now there is a push to pass a process called fast track through Congress in order to enable the large corporations to strong-arm TPP into law mobilized organizations around the country to sound the alarm.

“The answer is not to threaten to withhold your vote when you don’t get everything you want. The answer is for all of us – every single alienated, ignored, disillusioned citizen – to promise to always vote. Then the people you would actually want to vote for will have some assurance they can win, and take the risk of running, even if they can’t raise a poop-load of corporate cash.”

Don’t withhold your vote. Instead pledge to always vote. It’s collective power, and we can beat the corporations if we all pledge to always vote.

Madison. Occupy… Now in North Carolina it’s Moral Mondays. In Texas it’s a filibuster, hundreds of thousands watching online, and the spectator gallery goes nuts when Republicans try to shut down the speaker. In Pennsylvania low-wage workers are sleeping in teh capitol. In Nebraska it’s Pipeline Fighters. What’s happening in your state?

Madison

Corporate-funded Republicans took over in Wisconsin and passed laws restricting democracy and unions. People turned out at the state capitol in protest. Here are Wisconsin protesters chanting: “Tell me what democracy looks like. THIS is what democracy looks like!”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/4M7e-gVNEGU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Hy3yxP5prdI[/youtube]

Occupy

Then people started showing up for Occupy. All over the country in late 2011 people were showing up at thousands of Occupy events across the country.

I was in Oakland when tens of thousands of people turned out for a day of protest in that city.

“Democracy has been stolen and we have to take it back.” – Senator Merkley (D-OR) at Netroots Nation.

We have to end the filibuster, at the very least for nominations, if not for everything. This has to happen because Republicans are now obstructing everything, and agencies of our government are going to start shutting down over this summer. Without action the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) closes its doors at the end of August and not long after that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be without a director. These are just some of the nominations being obstructed — filibustered — in order to block these agencies from operating.

It is not right that anyone is able to just keep our government from operating, for any reason. It is time to end the flibuster. Visit Fix the Senate Now.

The Netroots Nation session, “The Three Keys to Reclaiming Our Democracy” took a look at the filibuster and other structural impediments to democracy. On the panel were CWA President Larry Cohen, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford, Citizen Action NY Executive Director Karen Scharff and Senator Jeff Merkley. The panel was hosted by Salon’s Joan Walsh

You really should give some money to progressive organizations now, and candidates at election-time. But giving money to progressive organizations now is like giving that amount of money to each and every progressive candidate come election-time.

Seriously, give $10 or $100 today to an organization that helps reach the public to increase understanding and support of progressive ideas, and it is like giving $1,000 to each and every progressive candidate come election time. This is because these organizations work all the time to lay the groundwork for all of those candidates as well as all legislative initiatives.